SPN100: And The Moment's Gone
by TolkienScholar
Summary: Drabble Collection. A series of brief moments with the Winchesters before and throughout the series, written for the SPN100 Drabble Challenge.
1. Dead History

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended. The title of this collection is a reference to "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Gunpowder, Treason, and/or Plot**

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 **MC4A Challenge (Retroactive):** BAON; ToS; NC; PP; SHoE; FF **  
Representations:** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; Saving People, Hunting Things; Revolutionary War; Soldier; Cocky; Guns; Ghosts **  
Word Count:** 200

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 **Setting:** Valley Forge, PA; summer 1992; Dean is 13, Sam is 9

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Dead History

"How'd you like to shoot one of these, son?"

"I can shoot anything," Dean answers. He looks at the flintlock the old guy is cleaning, unimpressed. Dean knows former battlegrounds are popular places for hauntings, but hanging around these living history sites while Dad does his stuff is definitely getting old. Might help if he knew something about history beyond your standard treason and bloodshed crap, but he's no Sammy; he's not enough of a nerd to actually care.

"That so?" A smile crinkles the corners of the man's eyes. Except for the gray beard, he'd make a better department store Santa than a Revolutionary War soldier. "And what exactly do you shoot, boy? Squirrels? Bunny rabbits?"

Dean can't give him an answer he'd believe.

"You try to pop a squirrel with this thing, you won't have much left to make dinner with. But pack enough gunpowder in here, and you can sure blow a beautiful hole in one of them Redcoats."

Dean scoffs. He'd be surprised if the guy's ever blown a hole in anything more dangerous than a target. At thirteen, Dean's probably seen worse things than not just the gray-bearded old geezer but the soldier he's impersonating.


	2. A Day in Our Town

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Perform**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** SHoE; LL; NC; ToS; BAON; Slicing Life  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; High School; Pride; Taking Care of Little Brother  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Oblique, Terse, Second Verse (Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Setting:** February 1998; Dean is 19, Sam is 14

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A Day in Our Town

Dean slides into the back row and slouches down in his seat, trying to blend into the crowd of excited parents till the house lights go down. It'd be social suicide to be seen here; he'd had about ten reasons worked out not to come. But none of them could stand against Sammy's puppy dog eyes, especially after a nice little one-man hunt conveniently came up to take Dad out of town tonight. _Somebody_ has to be here for Sammy's stupid play. The other kids have their moms and dads, but for Sammy, looks like Dean will have to do.


	3. Car Care

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Wash**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** SHoE; BAON; Slicing Life  
 **Representations:** Winchester Family; The Impala; Slice of Life  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Terse, Second Verse (Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional, Mouth of Babes)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Setting:** May 1989; Dean is 10, Sam is 6

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Car Care

"Make sure you soap her down real good, Sammy."

"I am," Sammy grumbles, slapping the washrag across the Impala's bumper. There's more water and soap suds down the front of his shirt than on the car.

Dean sighs. "No, you're not. You're just slinging water around. See all those bug guts?" He points at the love bugs plastered thickly over the bumper, evidence of their trip through Florida. "You've got to loosen those up so Dad can hose them off."

"Why? It'll just get dirty again."

"'Cause. If we take good care of her, she'll take good care of us."


	4. When Dad Says Run!

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Run**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** PP; LL; BAON; ToS  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; Monster Hunting; Lessons from a Father; Obedience  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Second Verse (Terse, Machismo [running away], Creature Feature, Non-Traditional, Middle Name)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Setting:** 2004

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When Dad Says "Run!"

When Dad says "Run!" you run. No asking questions, no looking back, no stopping to check if he's behind you, because either he is and he's okay, or he's still back there fighting the thing and needs you out of the way so he can focus on killing it instead of worrying about you. Doesn't matter that you're as good with a shotgun now as he is. Doesn't matter that you're not twelve anymore, you're twenty-five, and you've quit counting how many evil fiends you've wasted on your own in the last three years. When Dad says "Run!" you run.


	5. Ten Years Isn't Long Enough

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Length**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** SoC; PP; NC; FPC  
 **Representation(s):** Bela Talbot; Theft and Murder; Deals with the Devil; Hellhounds  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Under the Bridge, Second Verse (Terse, Creature Feature, Tomorrow's Shade, Ladylike – coldness)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Tag to the end of 3x15: "Time Is on My Side"; Bela's POV**

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Ten Years Isn't Long Enough

11:59. One minute. That's how long she's got left to live. One minute before her bill comes due.

At fourteen, ten years seemed like a long time. An eternity. Ten years free from her father's abuse, rolling in her parents' money. _Should be long enough to spend it all,_ was what she had thought then. Turns out not, especially with the addition of all her other ill-gotten gains. She's got enough to keep her set till she's ninety. If she was going to live that long. Which she's not.

12:00. She can hear the hellhounds barking. They're coming for her.


	6. Annoyance

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Wobble**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** BAON; SIN; Slicing Life; On the Nose; He's My Brother  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Winchester Brothers; Annoying Siblings  
 **Bonus Challenge(s)** Second Verse (Terse, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Tag to beginning of 2x20: "What Is and What Should Never Be"**

 **In case you've ever wondered how Dean ended up out driving alone while Sam was still back at the motel doing research...**

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Annoyance

His chair wobbles. It's about the least of the problems with this motel room—ceiling's mildewed, sink leaks, heat's busted—but it's currently the most interesting one.

"Dude, would you cut it out?" Sam says, exasperated. "What are you, four?"

"Yeah," Dean answers. "About four hours overdue for a drink. How about giving the research a rest, Einstein?"

Sam sighs. "Okay, first, we've been at this maybe two hours, tops. Second, we still don't have enough to go on. And third, we're trying to lay low here and not get arrested, remember?"

Dean shrugs. He starts rocking his chair again.


	7. For Real

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Elf**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** FF; PP; BAON; Slicing Life; Wee!chesters  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Real and Imaginary; Elves and Angels  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Second Verse (Terse, Creature Feature, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional, Mouth of Babes)  
 **Word Count:** 250

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 **Setting:** 1992; Dean is 13, Sam is 9

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For Real

"But why couldn't elves be for real, Dean?"

"'Cause."

"I don't mean like Santa's elves; obviously they're not real if Santa's not. But maybe like the ones in the fairytales, or from _Lord of the Rings_."

"Sammy, not a single hunter we know has ever seen one."

"Well, certain types of creatures only live in certain regions, right? And that's why only those places have lore about them? So since all the lore about elves seems to come from Europe, maybe they only live there. That would explain why Uncle Bobby and the rest haven't seen any."

"Yeah, and maybe Grimm's fairytales is actually a hunter's journal, and nobody has realized it till now. Congratulations, Sammy, you've just made the discovery of the century."

"I'm just saying…"

"Anyway, elves are supposed to be good, right? And every supernatural creature we've ever met has been evil."

"What about angels?"

"Have you ever seen an angel?"

"No, but—"

"Exactly. And neither has any other hunter. Evil things we know are for real because we've seen them. Good ones, there's no evidence for. So no angels, and no elves."

"Maybe you just need to have a little faith."

"Sure. Faith in elves. Let me go join the church of the Tolkienites."

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Oh, excuse me, I thought you were trying to convince me of the existence of elves."

"I don't know about elves, but I'm pretty sure there are angels, Dean."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure there aren't."


	8. How It Was Supposed to Happen

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Watch**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** NCR; SoC; PP; BAON; ToS; Fandom List B ( _Supernatural_ ); He's My Brother; Doggy  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Hellhounds; Deals with the Devil; Taking Care of Little Brother; Sacrifice  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Creature Feature, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 125

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 **Tag to 3x16: "No Rest for the Wicked"**

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How It Was Supposed to Happen

Sammy isn't supposed to be watching this. He wasn't supposed to know about Dean's deal at all, but of course, Sam's too smart for that to have lasted long. Still, Dean hadn't intended for him to be here, hadn't wanted his little brother to have to watch him die.

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He isn't supposed to be watching this. Dean wasn't supposed to die at all; Sam was supposed to find a way to stop it. But if he couldn't, Sam had intended to die with him, to hold onto his big brother until the hellhound had to either let Dean go or drag both of them down into the pit together. He isn't supposed to stand here, watching helplessly as the beast tears his brother to shreds.


	9. Right or Wrong

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Fuzz**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** NCR; FF; SoC; ToS; BAON; In a Flash  
 **Representation(s):** Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Saving People, Hunting Things; Fraud and Impersonation; Living in the Gray  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Lovely Coconuts, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 200

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 **Tag to 1x4: "Phantom Traveler"**

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Right or Wrong

There were a lot of things about the job Sam had been glad to get away from, and playing dress-up was far from the worst of them. Still, that doesn't mean he's missed it—the fake IDs that are illegal to _make_ , let alone use; the expensive suits bought on credit they never intend to pay back; the hollow pit in his stomach because surely this time _somebody_ will notice they're too young for Homeland Security, and then will they ever be in the doghouse.

But Dad has always said there's times when you have to do something wrong to do something right, and though Sam wants to believe there's another way, he has no idea what it is and no time to find it. Lives are in danger right now, and if fraud and impersonation are wrong, letting hundreds of people die is worse.

So with a sigh of resignation, he lets his brother tie his tie (four years of college, and he still hasn't managed to learn that stupid knot) and brushes a piece of fuzz off the back of Dean's tux on the way out of the store. Right or wrong, they have a job to do.


	10. Everyone's Mad Here

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended. The title is a quote from Lewis Carroll's _Alice in Wonderland_.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Mad**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** SoC; ToS; BAON; Overrated  
 **Representation(s):** Sam Winchester; Bobby Singer; Saving People, Hunting Things; Questioning Sanity  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Middle Name, Found Family, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 150

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Everyone's Mad Here

"Man, sometimes I think this job's enough to drive you mad," Sam sighs, sinking into a chair across the kitchen table from Bobby.

The older man twitches a grin at him. "You sayin' we ain't already?"

"Fair enough."

Bobby's face grows serious. "Mad with grief, mad with pain, mad with anger—"

"Mad with drinking?"

Bobby lowers the bottle he just raised to his lips. "Yeah. That too, I reckon." He pops the top on another bottle and hands it to Sam, who takes it wordlessly. "Son, you ever meet a hunter that ain't some kinda crazy, either he's just pretendin' to be sane or he ain't a hunter at all. This job—it gets to us all in the end, if it ain't already by the time we got started. The trick is bein' crazy enough to do the job, and sane enough not to get killed doin' it."


	11. Unlucky Number Four

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Four**

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 **MC4A Fill Number:** SoC; PP; BAON; He's My Brother; On the Nose  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; Winchester Luck; Loss of Trust; Hell  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Under the Bridge, Terse, Sitting Hummingbird, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Tag to the end of Ep. 5x2.**

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Unlucky Number Four

Four. What is it with him and the number four? For all the lore about unlucky number thirteen, that one's never given Dean a problem, but four? If ever a number were out to get somebody…

Four years old when Mom died.

Four lonely years without Sammy.

Four months—forty years—in Hell.

And now. Four years hunting together, having each other's backs, and now they're going their separate ways again. Because after four of the best and worst years of his life, it turns out he can't trust his brother.

He'd rather take another four hundred years in Hell.


	12. Learn to Whistle

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Bold**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** SoC; PP; NC; ToS; BAON; On the Nose  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; Parenting; Saving People, Hunting Things; Laughing in the Face of Danger  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 100

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Learn to Whistle

Of all the things Dean has picked up from John, that brash attitude isn't one of them. The bold impudence, the snide remarks that seem to slip out whether he means them to or not —that's one hundred percent Dean. From the time John started hunting, he was cautious, focused, intense; Dean laughs in the monsters' faces. It's a foolhardy habit at best and a dangerous one at worst, but John can't bring himself to try and stop it. His boy has grown up surrounded by the dark; perhaps it's for the best that he should have learned to whistle.


	13. Salad Forks and Plastic Sporks

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Fancy**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** PP; NC; ToS; BAON; In a Flash  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Winchester Family; Saving People, Hunting Things; High Society; Fraud & Impersonation  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Lovely Coconuts, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional)  
 **Word Count:** 200

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 **Loose tag to Ep. 3x6: "Red Sky at Dawn"**

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Salad Forks and Plastic Sporks

It isn't that Dean can't function in high society. Because of course, he can; he's conned his way into enough black-tie events over the years to have picked up the basics. After all, the rich and powerful get their share of hauntings, too—more than their share, since they've got the wealth and the stupidity to stir up ghosts in places where ordinary folks never set foot.

It's just that no matter how many times he ends up in this crowd, it never gets any less uncomfortable. It's all so… fake. The tight, restricting clothes that no one looks quite as good in as they think they do. The fancy wines in delicate little glasses so you can never manage to get enough for a proper buzz. The simpering conversations about the weather, croquet games at the right clubs, and who gave what to which charity last month. He and his brother are here under false pretenses, and yet somehow it seems like they're the realest people in the room.

So in the end, who cares where the salad fork goes? He'll settle for knowing which side of the Styrofoam plate and plastic spork to put the demon-killing knife on.


	14. Dumb Ways to Die

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Fifteen**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** Star  
 **Individual Challenges:** In a Flash (N); Click Bait It (N); Hunter MC (N)  
 **Representations:** Sam Winchester; Dean Winchester; Time Loop; Annoying Siblings; Character Death  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Pear-Shaped  
 **Spring Bingo Space Address:** 3E (Music)  
 **Word Count:** 300

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 **Tag to Ep. 3x11: "Mystery Spot"**

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Dumb Ways to Die

It's the fifteenth Tuesday.

There's no way to physically keep track, no scratching lines on a cave wall to show how long he's been stranded in this time loop. "Heat of the Moment" starts playing again, and the whole world resets, everything exactly as it was the morning before.

Except him. Every morning he wakes with a new memory of Dean dying to mark the day: Blown away. Hit by a car. Crushed under a desk. Choked on a sausage. Slipped in the shower. Bad taco.

And every morning, there's Dean. Alive again for the next twenty-four hours, or two hours, or fifteen minutes, depending on how long it takes him to find another creative way to die.

Sam drags himself out of bed and into the bathroom. Standing at the sink, Dean throws his head back and gargles, as long and as obnoxiously as humanly possible. Exactly like every one of the last fourteen Tuesdays.

Suddenly, Sam can't take it anymore.

"You don't quit that, I'll kill you."

The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them. It's something he and Dean have said to each other a million times: _You play that song again, I'll kill you. You don't leave me alone, I'll kill you. You leave your boxers on the floor one more time, I'll kill you._ It's stupid, meaningless. Just the kind of thing brothers say. Only it's not meaningless anymore, because Sam has watched Dean die fourteen times in a row, and whatever sicko is doing this to him, it would probably love for the fifteenth to be by Sam's own hand. Shaking, he backs slowly out of the bathroom. After fourteen Tuesdays, he just can't take the chance.

Oblivious, Dean grins at him and gargles another few seconds for good measure.


	15. All Work and No Play

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Froth (Inspired by the following quote:** _ **"You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water—an inch deep, and then the mud." ~ George MacDonald**_ **)**

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 **MC4A Individual Challenges:** On the Nose (Y); Hunter MC (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Annoying Siblings; Searching for Dad; Grief and Revenge  
 **Word Count:** 100

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 **Tag to Ep. 1x3: "Dead in the Water"**

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All Work and No Play

"You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." Dean points at the hot blonde's swinging hips as they disappear into the restaurant kitchen. " _That's_ fun."

Sam looks at him blankly, and Dean sighs. His brother didn't used to be such a killjoy. It's Jess. No matter how hard Dean tries, he can't distract Sam from her, from his obsessive need to find her killer. As if Dean's need to find Dad isn't just as strong, as if he isn't worried almost out of his mind over him.

Sometimes, though, a guy needs a little break.


	16. Teenage Vanity

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Mug**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** LL; SIN; NC; BAON; SHoE; Slicing Life; Wee!chesters; He's My Brother; In a Flash; Not Fruit Punch  
 **Representation(s):** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Middle School; Teasing & Banter; Self-consciousness  
 **Bonus Challenge(s):** Second Verse (Terse, Misshapen Pods, Non-Traditional, Mouth of Babes)  
 **Word Count:** 200

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 **Setting:** 1995; Dean is 16, Sam is 12

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Teenage Vanity

"Hey, princess, you wanna hurry it up in there? You're not the only one who lives here, you know."

There's no answer from the other side of the bathroom door, and Dean sighs. He only needs about five minutes to shower and brush his teeth, but he does need the five minutes. "Dude, you better be decent, 'cause if you're not out in ten seconds, I'm coming in."

His dramatic countdown fails to get any response, so Dean grabs a coat hanger and unbends it. A second later the cheap lock pops open.

Sammy is in front of the mirror, squeezing at a large red lump on his forehead. "It came up in the middle of the night," he says in frustration. "I can't get anything out of it."

"Welcome to puberty, little brother," Dean says, grinning.

"I'm serious, Dean! It's picture day today."

Dean shakes his head, half exasperated, half amused. "Sammy, by the time the yearbook comes out, we'll be so long gone nobody's gonna care whether your ugly mug had a pimple in the middle of it. It's gonna be fine, I promise. Okay?"

Sammy sighs. "Okay."

"Good. Now get out and let me take a shower."


	17. Sammy Winchester Is a Topytat

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Neck**

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 **MC4A Individual Challenges:** In a Flash (N); Click Bait It (N); Hunter MC (N); Tiny Terror (N); Booger Breath (Y)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Annoying Siblings; Copycat; Baby Talk  
 **Word Count:** 200

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 **Setting:** 1986; Dean is 7, Sam is 3

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Sammy Winchester Is a Topytat

"Car's all loaded up, Dad!" Dean calls, coming back into the motel room with Sammy close on his heels. There's a grunt from behind the bathroom door, where Dad is changing the dressing on the scratches he came back with last night.

"Tar's all woaded up, Dad!" Sammy echoes from behind him.

Dean groans. "For the millionth time, quit copying me, Sammy," he grumbles. Dad says this is just a phase his little brother will grow out of, but it's really starting to drive him nuts.

"For the mi-yunf time, twit topying me, Sammy."

"If you don't stop copying me, I'm gonna break your neck," Dean growls at him.

"Dean!" Dad calls through the bathroom door. The half-hearted rebuke almost drowns out the first part of Sammy's parroted, "If you don't stop topying me, I'm dunna bweak your neck."

Suddenly, Dean gets an idea. "Sammy Winchester is a whiny little girl," he hisses, low so Dad won't hear.

"Sammy Winchester is a—hey! I am not!" Sammy breaks off, scowling. "Daddy, Dean's being mean to me!"

"Dean!"

"Sorry," Dean replies, trying not to grin. Looks like he won't have to wait for Sammy to grow out of it after all.


	18. What Family Is For

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

 **SPN100 Prompt: Green, Beer, and/or Luck**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** FPC  
 **Individual Challenges:** In a Flash (N); Hunter MC (N)  
 **Representations:** Ellen Harvelle; Dean Winchester; Missing Scene; Protecting Your Loved Ones  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Not a Lamp; Persistence Still  
 **Word Count:** 400

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 **Tag to Ep. 2x10: "Hunted"**

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What Family Is For

She can hear the phone ringing through the thin, shoddy wood of the Roadhouse's back door. It stops for a second while she fumbles with her key in the lock, then starts again, shrill and insistent. She flings the door open and snatches it up.

"Hello?"

"Ellen? Is Sam there?"

She scrambles to place the voice. She knows she knows him, but his voice is high and frantic, and the road noise roaring through the phone makes it hard to hear; he must be doing at least 90. Then she registers the name. _Sam_. John Winchester's boy.

"Dean?"

"I can't find Sam. I've been calling everywhere. Bobby hasn't heard from him, and I've been trying to call you for the past half hour—"

"Dean, honey, slow down. What's going on?"

"I woke up this morning and Sam was gone. Packed up his stuff and snuck out in the middle of the night, didn't leave a note or anything. He's got his phone off, and I can't get a hold of him, and nobody knows where on God's green earth he is!"

"You're sure he left? Something didn't take him?"

There's a moment's silence, or what passes for silence inside a '67 Chevy Impala roaring down the highway. "Yeah. He… We had a fight."

Ellen winces, remembering her fight with Jo before her daughter took off to hunt on her own. At least Jo sends a postcard now and then to say she's alive. "What happened, sweetie?"

Another beat of silence. Then, "I have to find him, Ellen."

She sighs. "I'll put Ash on it."

"No good. Sam's too smart; he's have switched cars by now, ditched his credit cards, maybe even his phone. He knows how to not leave a trail."

"Then I guess we'll just have to hope we'll get lucky and he'll stop by for a beer and a chat."

"Yeah," Dean says through his teeth. Another growl comes from the engine as he pushes the Impala to still greater speeds. "Call me if you hear anything."

"Will do. Dean?"

He's hung up.

Ellen sighs again. She adds for the benefit of the empty bar, "Just… don't kill yourself while you're trying to find him," then replaces the phone, a heaviness settling deep into her soul. _You can't protect your loved ones forever,_ they say. As if protecting your loved ones isn't exactly what family is for.


	19. What a Mom Feels Like

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

 **SPN100 Prompt: Plump, Silk**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** FPC  
 **Individual Challenges:** On the Nose (N); Advice from the Mug (N); Hunter MC (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Ellen Harvelle; Motherhood; Hugs  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Not a Lamp  
 **Word Count:** 100

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What a Mom Feels Like

Dean remembers how it felt when Mom hugged him. The feel of her soft, gentle arms around him, her chin resting on top of his head so her silky hair fell like curtains around him and he was totally surrounded by _her_.

It isn't the same when Ellen hugs him. He's a grown man now, and he's the one resting his chin on her head, and she isn't as gentle as Mom. But there's something familiar in the way she pulls him to her, her soft, slightly plump shape against him as she holds him close. It feels like belonging.


	20. Touchpoint

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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 **SPN100 Prompt: Train**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** BAON; Fence  
 **Individual Challenges:** On the Nose (Y); Hunter MC (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Defining Dean  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Nontraditional  
 **Word Count:** 100

* * *

 **Tag to Ep. 1x1: "Pilot"**

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Touchpoint

"Sam!"

The white hot anger flicks off like a flashlight, leaving his mind clear and alert. His eyes are trained on the woman, perched on the bridge's railing as if on the boundary between one world and the next, glaring down with pale, ghostly malevolence. The night air is taut with expectancy.

He feels Sam close ranks, a ginormous touchpoint of reality, grounding him. For the moment, there's no more resentment between them. It's one of the most basic rules of hunting: as soon as the ghost appears, you cut the family drama.

He hasn't been this happy in years.


	21. Just Two Grave Robbers

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

 **SPN100 Prompt: Party**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** ToS; BAON  
 **Individual Challenges:** In a Flash (Y); Click Bait It (N); Hunter MC (N); Booger Breath (N); Above Average Natural (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Saving People, Hunting Things  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Middle Name; Second Verse (Nontraditional); Chorus (Pear-Shaped, Peddling Pots); Demo (Some Beach)  
 **Word Count:** 200

* * *

Just Two Grave Robbers

"Okay, according to the map, it should be right…" Sam thrusts his shovel into the muddy ground. "Here." Getting no response, he looks up.

Dean's eyes are glued to a college-age girl in hiking boots and khaki shorts passing by on the trail. Her T-shirt is riding up under her backpack, exposing a curve of white flesh. As she catches sight of them, she snatches a cell phone from her pocket and jams it against her ear. "Hi, Mom! Just wanted to let you know where I'm at. I'm hiking a nice little trail by the river…" She chatters on, glancing back every few seconds, until she's out of sight around the bend.

Dean bursts out laughing. "Hi, Mom!" he mimics in a high voice. "She didn't even dial."

Sam glares at him, his cheeks burning. "Yeah, she was freaked out. Young girl out alone, at dusk, sees two guys with guns and shovels staring at her like stalker creeps at a frat party? I can only imagine what she's thinking."

Dean tosses down his shovel. "Oh, you know, probably just that we're two grave robbers, out doing their job." He grins. "No biggie."

"Yeah, right," Sam grumbles. "No biggie."


	22. Quadruple Negative

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

 **SPN100 Prompt: Nerve**

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 **MC4A Challenges:** ToS; BAON; Shower  
 **Individual Challenges:** On the Nose (N); Click Bait It (N); Hunter MC (N); Booger Breath (N); Above Average Natural (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Annoying Siblings; Grammar Nazi  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Unwanted Advice; Mouth of Babes; Second Verse (Nontraditional)  
 **Word Count:** 100

* * *

Quadruple Negative

Sam had had a grammar Nazi phase. Of course he had; there must be a rule written somewhere that you couldn't earn your nerd card unless you spent your whole sixth grade year correcting everyone's grammar. It got on Dad's last nerve, but Dean took the whole thing in stride—that was to say, the more Sammy nitpicked, the worse his grammar got. To this day he still cherishes the look on Sammy's face when he responded to one correction with, "I ain't not know nothin' about no fancy grammar talk." It was the look of sheer and utter defeat.


	23. Worthless

**Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **Supernatural**_ **. No copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

 **SPN100 Prompt: Hand**

* * *

 **MC4A Challenges:** ToS; BAON; Shower; Fence  
 **Individual Challenges:** In a Flash (N); Hunter MC (N); Above Average Natural (N); Themes & Things B - Alienation (N)  
 **Representations:** Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester; Winchester Family; Defining Dean; Taking Care of Little Brother; Thanksgiving  
 **Bonus Challenges:** Unwanted Advice; Second Verse (Nontraditional)  
 **Word Count:** 200

* * *

 **Tag to Ep. 5:16: "Dark Side of the Moon"**

* * *

Worthless

" _I don't need this anymore. It's worthless."_

Dean stares down at the amulet in his hands. _Worthless._ Is that what it is?

It didn't help Cas find God, but that was never the point of it. The point was that it was a reminder that his brother loved him. Not in some touchy-feely girly way, but in a way that said, _"Hey, I know you're there for me."_ And Dean was. Always.

Only now he wonders, did Sam ever actually want him there in the first place? Because every single memory in Sam's personal heaven was about getting away from him. Some other family's Thanksgiving. Running away. Ditching him and Dad for Stanford.

Why bother being reminded you were always there for someone who only ever wanted to leave you?

"We'll find another way," Sam says. "We can still stop all this, Dean."

Dean looks up at him. "How?"

"I don't know," Sam answers. "But we'll find it. You and me. We'll find it."

 _You and me?_

Dean stares down at the amulet again. Then he heads for the door. He pauses, the amulet's cord dangling off one finger.

With a clang, it hits the bottom of the trash can.


End file.
